Lifted Up (March 10, 2024) Numbers 21.4-9

Imagine you are on a long trip. The road seems to go on forever and then you see it, the signs telling you that your destination is close. So close that you begin to perk up some. Then you see another sign: exit closed, follow detour. You have to go past your destination and find another way there. You’re tired, hungry and a bit disgruntled if truth be told. Here you were, so close and yet so far. From the back you begin to hear the complaining: “Are we there yet?”, “I’m hungry”, “She (or he) is looking at me and smiling”, “When are we gonna get there?”, “These snacks are nasty”, and on it goes. You answer in the time-honored way of all patient and caring drivers with the words, “We’ll get there when we get there!” And on you travel. What began with much anticipation is now looked upon with much complaining.

Moses was probably like someone driving on a long trip. He was used to hearing the complaints and the grousing. The Israelites were at it again. They seemed to never be happy since they were released from slavery by the Egyptians. And here they were, griping as usual and never thinking about how good they had it.

The book of Numbers is one complaint after another. The Israelites were traveling in the Wilderness and are seemingly wandering all around the place. They never seem to get a break. And when the times seem to be the toughest, they look back on the days in Egypt with the rose-colored glasses of nostalgia (Remember when…), something that we find ourselves and our politicians doing more often than not. Sure, slavery was bad, but freedom is even worse. Now they need to make choices about where to go and what to do as opposed to knowing what was expected of them. Yes, Egypt was bad, but freedom makes it look sooo good.

And so, the people complain. The water is nasty to drink. What happens? God tells Moses how to make is drinkable. There is no bread. God sends manna every day. There is no water. God has Moses strike a rock and the water gushes forth. There is no meat. God sends quails to satisfy the hunger. In all of this God is gracious. But there is a catch. In all of these stories Moses has to intercede for the people, asking God to forgive them, even shaming God sometimes, saying that God will look bad to other nations if something were to happen to the people.

There is also divine punishment for the complaints. One instance, God sends a fire to consume the people. In another, the leaders of a rebellion are swallowed up by the earth. Still another, Moses’ sister, Miriam is struck with leprosy and must be out of the camp for seven days. A demand for more meat has God telling the people that they will have meat, so much that it will come out of their noses. And when the people complain about the spies report of the Promised Land, they are told that all those over twenty will not see the land. Finally, we come to the last of the complaint stories, serpents, and their bite.

The people are coming off two big events: the death of Aaron and the victory over Canaanites. The first causes mourning throughout the camp for thirty days. The second is a showing that God is with them and is helping them to win victories over their enemies. One would think that this second event would lead to the people putting their trust, or faith, in God, that they would now go where God led them and would not complain. W. Eugene March says that “Faith” in the Bible is regularly understood as “trust” rather than “belief.” Moses did not challenge the people to “believe” in some doctrine about God. The aim of Moses was for the people to move forward trusting that God would keep the divine commitment to lead the people to a new land.[1]Again, after all that was done for them, one would think the Israelites would trust God.

But there is an issue that arose. The way to the Promised Land led through the nation of Edom. Edom was a close relative of the Israelites being the descendants of Esau, the brother of Jacob. In other words, they were cousins. But Edom throws up a roadblock. They will not allow the Israelites to pass through even though they are told that the Israelites will stay on the road and only the road. So, the Israelites must turn around, head back into the Wilderness and go around Edom.

Here is where the complaints begin. This is the last time we hear of the people complaining and boy, is it a doozy. They complain against both God and Moses (before they had only complained against Moses) not only proving that they are impatient with the delay, but that they are seditious against those who are leading them. Their complaint is this: ‘Why have you brought us up from Egypt’, they said, ‘to die in the desert where there is neither food nor water? We are heartily sick of this miserable fare.’[2]They conveniently forgot that they were given water and food by God in the Wilderness. They forgot that they were sustained by this “miserable fare” when they should have starved long ago, though they may have grown tired it. Manna could be cooked or baked in a variety of ways, but after so long it would become tiresome to eat the same thing day in and day out. But to call it “miserable fare” is going a bit too far.

God appears to be sick of the whining and complaining. Instead of graciously providing something new or different as God did in the past, God sends venomous snakes among them. They are called fiery serpents in Hebrew because of the fiery bite that they incurred to those bitten. Many died, as one would assume, because of these bites. And then the people, quickly realizing their mistake, repent. There is nothing like something bad happen to someone when they do something wrong to make them repent of what they did. It truly is amazing. But the people call upon one whom they rebelled against, Moses, to again intercede for them saying that they were wrong to question God and would he please ask God to forgive them and remove the snakes.

God relents when they repent, once again displaying that God is a gracious God. But the snakes remain. The consequences of sin sometimes remain even when there is repentance. This something that we do not wish to acknowledge, both sin and the consequences of that sin. But we do sin, and the consequences can be short or long term. Something that happens quickly and we realize that we did wrong, and grace is shown to us. Or it could be something like the damage to a relationship that takes a long time, or maybe never, to heal. The Israelites know this, and this is a clear indication that God is not taking away the consequences from them.

But there is hope. God tells Moses to make a bronze serpent and put it on a pole. This must have been a very tall pole because all the camp was to be able to see it. The people are told that if bitten by a serpent, all they must do is look up to the bronze serpent and be healed. And they do. The people are healed. It is interesting that the serpent is seen as both an animal that brings sickness and healing. Today, the symbol of medical persons and facilities is two snakes entwined together. It is indicative that sometimes we must go through pain before we are healed. And we can be healed whether by modern medicine or miraculous healing. The people were to remember that it was not the serpent on the pole that brought healing, but God and God’s gracious mercy. Unfortunately, they forgot this lesson. The bronze serpent became an object of worship, an idol, that was destroyed in the future by king Hezekiah.

Now you may wonder what this story has to do with us today in modern times. Well, like the Israelites we complain against God. We find things hard and we hear some folks who want to “go back to Egypt”, who oppose change of any type and want to hearken back to “the good ole’ days.” And sometimes we find that God sends punishment for our seditiousness. When that happens, we find that we repent really fast. But as stated before, the consequences remain, and we find we must face those consequences. But, like with the Israelites, there is hope.

Jesus used this story to point to himself. He said that like the serpent on the pole, he must be lifted up so that people would look to him for life and life everlasting. He was lifted up on the cross so that we could be freed from the sin that bites us like a fiery serpent. When we look to Jesus, we find grace and know that sin has been conquered. Do we still sin and complain against God? Yes, we do. But when we do, we only need to look to the cross.

This story tells us that we must not ignore the First Testament to the detriment of our trust in God. Knowledge of the First Testament is essential to the Second Testament. If we did not know the story from Numbers, we would not understand what Jesus was saying when he said that he must be lifted up. In being lifted up, Jesus states that he comes not to condemn the world but to save it.

As we continue through Lent, we are reminded constantly of the cross that must come before the glory of the resurrection. Are we looking to the cross for healing or are we depending upon ourselves? Are we complaining against God for things that we want not what we need? Like those the story in Numbers let us look to the one who was lifted up and be healed. Amen.

[1] Bartlett, David L.; Taylor, Barbara Brown. Feasting on the Word: Year B, Volume 2: Lent through Eastertide (Feasting on the Word: Year B volume) (p. 248). Presbyterian Publishing Corporation. Kindle Edition. [2] The Revised English Bible. Cambridge; New York; Melbourne; Madrid; Cape Town; Singapore; São Paulo; Delhi; Dubai; Tokyo: Cambridge University Press, 1996. Print.